Three Little Words (i didn't say)
by Taywen
Summary: "The Uchiha are the ones who valued love and friendship above all else. So much so that they deemed it necessary to seal them off." - Tobirama, ch. 619. The Uchiha clan and friendship and love and betrayal. Drabbles.
1. Madara

Disclaimer: Naruto does not in any way belong to me, it's the property of Kishimoto, etc.

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Three Little Words (i didn't say)

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01. Madara

He is a genius, the best of his admittedly exceptional clan, and he knows it. The only one who can hold a candle to him is his younger brother, Izuna - and even then Izuna is only following in his footsteps. Until he isn't, and Madara finds himself staring across the battlefield with eyes that are not his own and a conspicuous emptiness at his back.

The prodigy of the Senju, Hashirama, stares back. He is the only one who has ever matched Madara, and the Uchiha can't help but hate him that much more because there is a younger brother standing at Hashirama's side. Madara feels Izuna's absence more than ever.

Scant years later, Madara is shaking his (counterpart? equal? mirror?) friend's hand before the gates of the newly founded Konoha. He can scarcely believe all that has happened since the days of their clans' enmity - had he been asked back then if he thought the Uchiha would ever ally themselves with the Senju, Madara would have laughed before killing theasker for ththeir insolence.

"I am glad you're here, my friend," Hashirama says, smiling wide enough to almost split his face.

Madara bites back on the _I love you_that threatens to spill past his lips. There will be time enough for those declarations later, when the village has been more firmly established. There are yet enemies about, watching this strange, fragile creation for any weakness.

A few months later, an envoy from the Uzumaki clan, founders of a similar hidden village in Wave Country, arrives in Konoha. Uzumaki Mito is among them.

Madara bites back his foolish, weak feelings until he can taste copper on his tongue.

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A/N: just a little something I wrote for comment_fic on lj. Obito's drabble with follow... other drabbles concerning other Uchiha may show up as well.


	2. Obito

Disclaimer: Naruto does not in any way belong to me, it's the property of Kishimoto, etc.

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Three Little Words (i didn't say)

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02. Obito

He could have kissed Nohara Rin that first day, when she handed him his paperwork. Except girls were still kind of gross back then, pretty but alien, so he settled for grinning at her and yelling his thanks as he ran to speak with his cousins.

There are other girls in his class, of course. Prettier, with brightly coloured hair and seemingly sweet words, but Obito never spares them more than a glance. He likes Rin's soft brown hair, her gentle smiles and the high-pitched giggle she makes when she's surprised or nervous.

And then they get put on a genin squad with Hatake Kakashi, the prodigy of the generation. He's already a chunin at that point of course, and a total stuck up asshole about it to boot. Obito doesn't like him, and how he takes up Rin's attention - it's OK that she likes someone else (Obito's willing and ready to do anything to earn hwe affection) but did it have to be _Kakashi_?

He doesn't say "I love you," when she wraps his hand after an embarrassing shuriken accident, because he doesn't quite know what love means yet, and they have their whole lives ahead of them. They've only just made chunin, there's still jounin and then Obito will become Hokage and Rin will be the best medic nin and he supposes Kakashi can be the head of ANBU.

Except the only one of them who makes it to adulthood is Kakashi.

Obito does whisper, "I love you," as the cave collapses around them (well, just him) but he doesn't think Rin hears him.

Then he wakes up with half a body and one eye and all the hope in the world threatening to burst out of his chest. He will come back and then he and Rin and Kakashi will be a team again.

He comes back and Kakashi has killed Rin and bitterness chokes him, rage and grief obscuring his confusion (because why would Kakashi-?!) and he falls.

Obito will make up for his lost time even if he has to burn the whole world to do it.


	3. Shisui

Disclaimer: Naruto does not in any way belong to me, it's the property of Kishimoto, etc.

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Three Little Words (i didn't say)

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03. Shisui

His eyes see at once too much and too little. The clan is important, but the village is more so. Itachi's importance is paramount.

Shisui can see the fractures between the Uchiha and Konoha, but what can one boy - prodigy or not - do to fix it? He does his best to shield Itachi from it, but Itachi has always been _apart_ from the clan, in a way that Shisui cannot possibly understand. The distance only grows with time.

The best he can do is flicker back and forth, between the clan and Konoha and Itachi. And if he lingers longer at his cousin's side, well, who is to notice such subtleties? Besides Itachi himself, of course; but Itachi seems not to care for such things, and so long as Shisui can stand at his side, that does not bother him.

Danzo comes for Shisui, not Itachi. Perhaps he believes Shisui is the stronger; that is not true, Shisui knows. He will always be the weaker of the two of them, the satellite orbiting Itachi's pale sun. Shisui needs Itachi, but he does not think that Itachi needs him in the same way.

But Itachi is waiting for him, so Shisui flickers away from Root, though not without injuries. Shisui cannot recall ever seeing such an expression on Itachi's face as the one Itachi wears now, confronted by Shisui's injured state.

"I love you," Shisui says, because Itachi ought to hear it from him, even though his little cousin must already know.

"I do not love you," Itachi insists, but his eyes are unusually bright. The denial doesn't hurt nearly as much as the steady throb of Shisui's empty eye socket, or the myriad other wounds he sustained fighting Danzo.

The last thing Shisui sees before his eye is removed is Itachi's three tomoe coalescing.

"I love you," he says again, though he can't be certain if Itachi hears him over the rushing of the Nakano.

Itachi's hands shake as he holds Shisui under the water.


	4. Itachi

Disclaimer: Naruto does not in any way belong to me, it's the property of Kishimoto, etc.

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Three Little Words (i didn't say)

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04. Itachi

What is love?

Devotion to a steadfast comrade? The bond of affection shared between parent and child? The desire to protect a younger, weaker sibling from all harm?

Itachi's Sharingan first activate when a foreign shinobi managed to infiltrate Konoha and attempt to kidnap himself and Shisui. He's only eight years old.

His father trains him and his mother tends his bruises from training, and Itachi's Sharingan gain three tomoe.

(He saved them for last, which was a mistake; he hasn't cried since the night of the massacre, and it was only his parents' calm acceptance of their fate that managed to break through the psychological barriers he had erected to carry out his final mission for Konoha.)

Itachi helps Shisui die (he _kills _Shisui) and his Sharingan bleeds, tomoe merging together to form another shape entirely.

(He told Shisui _I don't love you_ but it was a lie; Itachi lies like breathing and it is only easier after that because nothing hurt quite as much as saying _I don't love you_ to Shisui.)

He goes blind, struggling to stay alive and give Sasuke the fighting chance that his younger brother needs and deserves.

(He had thought to save Sasuke from their clan's cursed fate; if the boy's bonds were formed with other villagers, rather than rooted in his own clan, surely he would not fall prey to the same hatred.)

Itachi failed to account for the love of a younger brother forever chasing his older brother's shadow.

_Hate me_, Itachi had told Sasuke. What he'd meant was, _remember the bonds you had, and cherish the ones that you will make_.

Sasuke stands before him, alone. He glares at Itachi with fully-formed Sharingan (but not the Mangekyou; not _yet_, perhaps) and there is such hatred in his gaze.

Itachi tastes copper on his tongue, and he isn't certain if it's from his failing lungs or something else entirely.


End file.
